During the break times at a recent seminar on reading motivation, I projected a PowerPoint show that featured quotes from famous people about the power of reading. A seminar participant asked if she could get a copy of all the quotes, so I decided to share them with all of you as well. Following the list of quotes is a PowerPoint slide show that you can download and show in your classroom. The slides automatically loop, so try projecting the slide show on your screen as students arrive in the morning. Have them discuss the quotes and try making up some of their own. (You may have to adjust the font style and size if you don’t have the same font on your computer).
“In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself.”
–Ann Quindlen
“I love to travel, but when I really want to escape, I read a book.”
–Jean Craighead George
“Readers don’t grow in trees. But they are grown—in places where they are fertilized with lots of print, and above all, read to daily.”
–Jim Trelease
“When I read a good book, it’s like traveling the world without ever leaving my chair.”
–Richard Peck
“I love surprises! That’s what is great about reading. When you open a book, you never know what you’ll find.”
–Jerry Spinelli
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
–Joseph Addison
“Reading should be like your favorite dessert: No matter how full you are, you can find room for it.”
–Danny Brassell
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”
–Mason Cooley
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
–Walt Disney
“To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.”
–Cicero
“Your reading muscles are like any other muscle in your body: inactivity prompts atrophy.”
–Danny Brassell
“The person who does not read has no advantage over the person who cannot read.”
–Mark Twain
“Books are passports to seeing the world.”
–Danny Brassell
“Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.”
–Augustine Birrell
“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.”
–Mary Wortley Montagu
